Hyperloop Gets Passengers From New York City to D.C. in 20 Minutes?

Hyperloop One has presented a plan for a high-speed tube that could get passengers from New York City to Washington, D.C. in 20 minutes. The company announced the proposal during an event in D.C. last week — saying they want to connect 80% of the U.S. through electromagnetic tubes, NBC News reported. Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk first proposed the idea in 2013. If the concept comes to fruition, passengers could travel on magnetically levitating pods that travel more than 700 miles per hour. A trip between New York and Washington D.C. could take 20 minutes, a significantly shorter length than the current train route, which takes more than 3 hours long.

Hyperloop One said more than 83 million people could benefit from the tube. Executives from Hyperloop One also said they wanted to tackle cross-country trips, allowing people to travel anywhere within the U.S. in under five hours. The company is currently working to get the high-speed tube to move cargo between the two East Coast hubs by 2020 — and passengers may be able to take the speedy trip the following year. “I think it’s going to become a reality,” Gabe Klein, the former head of the D.C. Department of Transportation, told NBC News. “I think it may take longer than people think to get through all the right-of-way clearances and the sort of government regulations. But I think we are in for a sea change in terms of long-haul transportation.”